Senate budget would slash juvenile facility

The May 24 edition of the AC-T carried an article "Budget closes juvenile facility" reporting a state Senate proposal which, if enacted, will close three facilities/programs: the Buncombe County Juvenile Detention Center in Swannanoa, the Buncombe Correctional Center in Woodfin, and the Julia F. Keith Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Center in Black Mountain.

It does not take a genius to imagine that these three programs serve a large number of our fellow citizens with serious emotional/mental/social needs.

It is no doubt true that each of these facilities/programs is in need of significant improvement and that such improvement might well result in a paring of personnel, practices and funding.

Yet, the draconian proposal by the Senate is one more example of how our way of life too often results in those who have been given power using and abusing that power at the expense of the diseased, disabled and disenfranchised.

What will we, who also have the power of prayer, communication by phone, email, snail mail and the vote, do to encourage the members of the House to act more responsibly, wisely and justly than their Senate colleagues?

Bill Janes, Black Mountain

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Senate budget would slash juvenile facility

The May 24 edition of the AC-T carried an article ?Budget closes juvenile facility? reporting a state Senate proposal which, if enacted, will close three facilities/programs: the Buncombe County